Selaine Saxby joined ex-footballer Fabrice Muamba who suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at Tottenham Hotspurs’ White Hart Lane and the TOBE-Heartsafe (TOBE) team in Westminster to support life saving skills training including CPR and the use of an AED and discuss cardiac screening for young people.
Every day, strong and healthy young people die suddenly from heart conditions they did not know they had. TOBE is on a mission to provide cardiac screening, CPR training and defibrillators to local communities via schools and sports clubs.
TOBE was created out of a tragedy when in July 2019, 22 year old Toby (or Tobe as he was known to friends and family) was found dead on his bedroom floor by his mother – Sam Richards – from an undiagnosed heart condition. His death was registered as SADS - Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome. The tragedy brought together a team of people and specialists who decided to form a CIC (Community Interest Company) to extend screening and training services beyond just the few who can afford to pay for them, building in a like for like plan to offer services free of charge to those in the local community where feasible.
Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon said:
“It was lovely to meet with the TOBE team in parliament and talk about their mission to provide cardiac screening, CPR training and defibrillators across the country. Glad to hear the recent plans by the Government to invite community organisations to bid for funding for a defibrillator for their area. With 1,000 new defibrillators planned in community spaces across England.
“I hope schools in North Devon will participate in this important campaign. And I also hope our local parishes that have defibrillators are checking batteries, keeping their training up to date, and the local community know where the defibrillators are and are confident operating them.”
Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East said:
“I am proud to champion the aims of TOBE-Heartsafe and delighted to sponsor the MP drop-in to encourage my colleagues to take the message of basic life support training and the importance of screening to their constituents. I commend the TOBE-Heartsafe charitable and community aims and I will be working with the team to help facilitate a programme in Swansea, hopefully this year.”
